RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION Pursuant to Sixth Circuit I.O.P. 32.1(b) File Name: 18a0276p.06 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT MEHRDAD HOSSEINI, ┐ Plaintiff-Appellant, │ │ │ v. │ > No. 17-6453 │ KIRSTJEN M. NIELSEN, Secretary of the United States │ Department of Homeland Security; L. FRANCIS │ CISSNA, Director, United States Citizenship and │ Immigration Services, in his official capacity; │ KRISTINE R. CRANDALL, Director of Nebraska Service │ Center, United States Citizenship and Immigration │ Services, in her official capacity, │ Defendants-Appellees. │ ┘ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky at Lexington. No. 5:14-cv-00404—Karen K. Caldwell, Chief District Judge. Argued: October 18, 2018 Decided and Filed: December 19, 2018 Before: KEITH, CLAY, and NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judges. _________________ COUNSEL ARGUED: Lance Curtright, DE MOTT, MCCHESNEY, CURTRIGHT, ARMENDARIZ, LLP, San Antonio, Texas, for Appellant. Joseph Francis Carilli, Jr., UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Lance Curtright, DE MOTT, MCCHESNEY, CURTRIGHT, ARMENDARIZ, LLP, San Antonio, Texas, for Appellant. J. Max Weintraub, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Appellees. No. 17-6453 Hosseini v. Nielsen Page 2 _________________ OPINION _________________ NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judge. Mehrdad Hosseini fled his native Iran and obtained asylum in the United States in 1999. Two years later, he applied to adjust his legal status to become a lawful permanent resident. But the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) denied that application after concluding that Hosseini provided material support to two Iranian terrorist organizations, rendering him inadmissible to the United States under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(3)(B)(iv)(VI)(dd). This case turns on whether Hosseini’s copying and distribution of flyers amounts to material support of a terrorist organization. Over an approximate six-year span after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Hosseini made copies of and distributed flyers from several Iranian non- governmental organizations, including the Mujahadin-e Khalq (“MeK”) and the Fadain-e Khalq (“FeK”).1 Hosseini insists that the flyers he distributed alerted Iranians to the new regime’s human rights abuses, including its crackdown on women, students, workers, and other civil dissidents. Nonetheless, USCIS determined that MeK and FeK were terrorist organizations and that Hosseini provided them material support by copying and distributing their flyers. After USCIS denied his application, Hosseini sought relief in federal court, arguing that USCIS’s inadmissibility determination was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 701 et seq., and the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2201. The district court affirmed USCIS’s determination. We AFFIRM. I. In 1997, Mehrdad Hosseini’s wife, Nasrin Abdolrahmani, left Iran with her two children and traveled to the United States on a B-2 tourist visa. Shortly thereafter, Abdolrahmani applied for asylum, noting her genuine fear of persecution were she to return to Iran. Abdolrahmani explained in her affidavit supporting her asylum petition that the government was targeting her 1These organizations have different names and spellings. MeK is sometimes called “the Mojahedin,” “the Mujahedeen,” and “MEK.” Likewise, “Fedaian,” “Fadaian,” and “Fadayan” are substitutes for FeK. We refer ...
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